Chasing Storm

A/N: If you already read chapter one, please go back and reread over it. I edited it.

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By the time she got to the beach the sun had started to set. “Steel” she hollered out. “I have a job for ya” she said as she opened the door to his cabin. She stopped in the middle of his two-room cabin.

“Damn it Storm cant ya knock for once,” yelled a man with blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Storm turned around and smirked.

“So what is this little rabbit’s name?” she asked. She turned back around as a brunet ran past her.

“Her name was something or other” he mumbled as he laced his pants up.

Storm smirked as she walked into his kitchen. She grabbed a piece of bread and smirked at him when he came in glaring at her. “What?” she asked innocently.

“What are ye doing here Storm?” he asked.

“Hmmm? Oh. Have a job for ya. Bunch of people disappeared from town and I’m gonna need some help” she said to him.

“How many people is a bunch?” he asked.

“Black said around 100 people,” she said as she shrugged.

He rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. She held out her piece of bread at him and laughed. “Get much sleep lova boy?” she asked.

“Shut up” he growled.

“Well might as well get started on this job in the morning” Storm said and walked out side and grabbed her pack and started to get settled down. She placed her sword onto the ground next to her and in one swift motion took the saddle off of Oblivion.

“Why don’t you come and sleep with me inside? It would be a lot warmer than here” he said with a lustful tone to his voice.

“Rather risk being eaten by sharks then sleep near you and your lecherous hands” she said and smirked. She lay down and looked to the sky. She could hear the waves crashing and it lulled her to relax. She was alone. That night she would dream. She would hear the screams that haunted her. She would relive that day again.

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Their screams rang in her ears. The smell of burning wood and flesh hung in the air. All she could do was wiggle in the arms of someone. A man threw her on the back of a horse. She could smell the sweat on him. She got further and further away from her house. She could feel the tears fall down her face. She screamed for them to let her go but it was to no use.

They had finally stopped. The same man pulled her off the horse and she fell down onto the ground. She stood up quickly and tried to run but he had grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She saw his face. He had a beard that was brown; he had no hair on his head. His eyes were black and it scared her to the depths of her soul. In his eyes she could see what he wanted. She was still a child though. She felt his hand strike her. She felt the blood that fell from her lip. He struck her again but this time harder, forcing her to fall back on the ground. He loomed over her and she screamed.

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Storm jerked awake screaming. She could feel it all. She could still feel his hands on her. She was rocking. Not by herself though. “Its okay my child. Old Black is here now” she heard. She was safe. She was safe again.

“You always do know when I’m not all right don’t ya old man?” she said.

“You’re my child. It’s a bond I have with ye. Never to let something happen to ye, not in this world or the dream world” he said in a whisper. She soon found herself falling asleep again but this time in the arms of the only man that she could call her father.

Storm awoke with the sun like all the days before. This time she woke up to seeing Black sitting in front of her. “Gave me a scare last night Stormy girl” he said without looking at her. “Same dream?” he asked. She nodded just looking at him. He walked over to her and handed her some water “Drink some” he said. She sipped it and felt the cool water going down her throat.

After just sitting there she stood up. “Got a lot of work to do” she said and got her stuff ready again. “Steel, hurry your lazy ass up” she screamed as she saddled up Oblivion again. She shot up into her saddle and turned the morab around. She saw Steel walk out of the cabin and get his horse ready. “I’ll take to the north. If I find something I’ll send a bird to ya. You two do the same.” she said and kicked Oblivion into a gallop heading north along the beach. She had a lot of work to do and a lot of covering. This land was too large to explore alone and there were many different towns in each direction.

She knew this job would be basically impossible but she had to try. If it was the same thing happening again then she had to try, for her sister if anything else. With Steel helping her it should be a little bit easier. She hated asking for help, especially from him. Working with him meant she actually had to talk to him.

Storm remembered the first time she had met him. She was around 15 and Black introduced them to each other while on a job. Steel was almost 3 years older than she was. From that day she just thought he was the best thing that had happened to her. But she soon learned the ways of life. He promised to marry her when she turned 17; but a few days before her 17 birthday she found him in bed with some girl. After that day she only talked to him when she needed to.

She didn’t hate him. She actually thanked him for showing the real him before they did something. She just didn’t like how he acted. Her father was someone that respected women and that’s how she thought all men should act. Her mother taught her at a young age that she did not belong to any man and that she could be who she wanted to be.

She smiled at that thought. Her mother had black hair with tanned skin and purple eyes. She was a Sharra while her father was an Apilin. There were three different races of people in Ahara. The Sharra were the people of the south, they had tanned skin with green or purple eyes and raven black hair. The Apilin were the people from the north, they were light colored skins with normal eye coloring and normal hair coloring. The people of the West were called Glinns; they had dark colored skin because the land was desert. Her father had red hair with cream colored skin and green eyes. She had the right combination of both her parents in her looks. She was a Sharra herself because of the town she was born in.

She slowed Oblivion down into a slow trot when she saw the signs to the next town. The sun was high in the sky so she knew she had plenty of time to ask around this town. She didn’t really know this town very well but from the looks of the buildings she knew she was in an Apilin town. It didn’t really matter much to her. They all spoke the same language, the accent was different but words were words.

She stopped her horse and jumped off. She walked over to the blacksmith shop and leaned over the window. “Blacksmith” she yelled.

A rather large bald man in a brown apron walked out from a back room. “What ye need lil lady” he said what was like an English street accent.

She allowed that to slide for now. “I need some information. The town to the south has had some people go missing. They say the people were there one minute then the wind picked up and then they were gone. Anything like that happen around here?” she asked.

“Does is look like something ‘as ‘append around ‘ere?” he asked. She looked at him blankly. “Not that I know of” he said. She turned around and looked around the small town. “Anythin else ye need lil lady?” he asked.

She turned back around and looked at him. She put on a sweet smile and leaned across the window again “Yea” she said. She reached over her back and drew her sword and placed it up to his neck quickly. “Don’t call me ‘lil lady,’” she said in a venomous voice. She with drew her sword from his throat and placed it back in its proper place.

She turned around and strode to her horse. She turned around again. “Blacksmith” she called. “If something like that happens around here, send word to the one they call Storm” she said and smirked when she saw his eyes go big. All he could do was nod. She was well known throughout all three lands because of the jobs she did and what she did. Black had trained her well when it came to the jobs. You could call her a mercenary or just an adventurer. Either way she has killed people and things.

Storm turned and mounted her horse. She turned her to the north and followed the road heading to the next town. She knew she wasn’t going to get there before nightfall but maybe she could get halfway there by nightfall. Not long after riding she could feel the sun beating down on her and could feel Oblivion getting tired of the entire running.

She soon spotted a grove of apple trees. She stopped underneath an apple tree and got off of her mare. She picked a few apples. She handed one of Oblivion and took out a dagger from her pack to cut up one for herself. She sat down and leaned up against the trunk eating bits of her apple while Oblivion munched away on grass.

She finished her apple and fished out her leather water sack and drank some for herself and poured some into a bowl for Oblivion. She put the sack back into her pack and stood up stretching. She had wasted about an hour of just sitting there. She mounted Oblivion again and took off heading north, hoping to get halfway there still.

When night fell she knew she had to stop. Oblivion was breathing heavy and was worn out from all running they had done that day. Storm dismounted her mare and led her off the road, into a small cluster of pine trees. She tied the Morab to a small tree and started to unsaddle her. When she got the saddle undone and dropped it to the ground and laid the saddle blanket on top of it. She didn’t have a bit in Oblivion’s mouth. There was no need of it. Oblivion responded better without one. Storm had trained her herself.

Storm patted her horse on the muzzle and walked a few feet away and laid down her bow. She kept her sword strapped to her hip just in case someone foolish attacked her. She walked away from her items and started collecting wood for a fire. It was already getting dark and she didn’t want it to be to dark where she couldn’t see. She didn’t have to go far till she had an armful over sticks and small branches from the trees. She collected a few more sticks as she walked back to where she was making camp. She was close enough to the road that she wouldn’t get lost but far enough away that if she made a fire, no body would notice her. She threw some of the sticks into a small pile and then the rest of it about 3 ft away from it. She had rocks in a circle so the fire wouldn’t spread.

She knew a little magic while a lot of other Sharras learned mostly magic. Storm knew enough magic to make some things. She knew how to use her magic to make a fire. She closed her eyes and just thought of how a fire would feel and look. She moved her hands over the sticks, palms down and reopened her eyes when she felt warmth underneath her hands. She stood up and walked over to her brown pack, pulling out an apple for Oblivion and some dried beef for herself that she had snagged from Steel the previous night. She handed the apple to Oblivion, who was munching on grass but was happy to receive an apple.

Storm walked over to the fire with her pack. She had a sleeping blanket attached to it and pulled it off. She spread it out where she would stay warm through the night and sat down on it. She pulled out a strip of jerky and started eating at it. Tomorrow she would stay in town and get a real meal to eat. She stretched out on her back and looked up at the dark night sky. She needed all the rest she could get tonight for tomorrow was another long day of searching for things that weren’t there anymore.

These people started going missing around 12 years ago. There were rumors about a lot of things happening to these people. So far around 400 people were missing. No one knew for sure how many though and none of them had anything to do with each other except that the wind was strong and some flash of lights. It could be some crazy person using the life energy from the people to get them power, or it could be a new type of monster that learned some good spells killing them when they were alone. One thing for sure was that people were scared to be alone and that they were scared they would be next. Of course Storm wasn’t scared. She had been alone for some time and this was her job. Getting paid for looking for people that weren’t there, looking for a high priced item for someone that wanted power or saving someone that was foolish enough to get kidnapped by highwaymen was her job and she did it well. Storm closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. A few hours would be good enough for her.